Dick Advocaat: I won't tolerate a repeat of Sunderland's performance against Aston Villa

DICK ADVOCAAT will do his utmost to remain in the Upton Park technical area when he takes charge of Sunderland for the first time today after revealing their last display almost drove him to a one-man pitch invasion.

09:00, Sat, Mar 21, 2015 | UPDATED: 10:14, Sat, Mar 21, 2015

Advocaat GETTY

Advocaat has nine matches to keep Sunderland in the Premier League

The Black Cats travel to West Ham in the first of the Dutchman’s initial nine-game reign, the 67-year-old tasked with keeping the Wearside club in the Premier League, in the wake of the crushing 4-0 home defeat by Aston Villa proving the final act of Gus Poyet’s turbulent 16 months at the helm.

By chance, or perhaps in anticipation of an impending SOS after being sounded out three weeks ago by former Tottenham and Chelsea talent scout Frank Arnesen, a mutual acquaintance he shares with Sunderland’s sporting pirector Lee Congerton, regarding his potential interest in the job, Advocaat happened to be watching live on television the barely credible manner in which Villa romped to victory.

“When Villa scored, you could see that something was going wrong in the heads of the Sunderland players,” Advocaat revealed yesterday at his first press conference since succeeding Poyet this week. “When the fourth goal went in, five players were standing, or at best they were walking back to defend instead of running back.

“To do that, for me it is just not possible, there’s something wrong with that. I’ve already told them, ‘If I was beside the line for that game, I would have been on the pitch’.”

Sunderland appoint Dick Advocaat as head coach [AMBIENT]

I always say to players, ‘Listen, if you do what I want I am a really friendly man'
Dick Advocaat

Advocaat is keen to stress there is a degree of carrot to accompany the stick in his man-management methods, although the stick is likely to be more prevalent as he aims to guide Sunderland to a ninth consecutive season of top-flight football.

“I always say to players, ‘Listen, if you do what I want I am a really friendly man. If not, then I am not so nice’. It’s that simple,” he said.

“Have I been unfriendly yet? No, but that is normal in the beginning. Coaches have different approaches, but while I’m here we will do things my way.”

Advocaat is likely to include Adam Johnson in his 18-man matchday squad to face West Ham after the midfielder’s return from a club suspension following allegations of sexual activity with an under-age girl.

Duncan Watmore, an untried winger promoted from the Under-21s, is also set to be involved as Sunderland look to increase their slender one-point advantage on the bottom three by securing only a second league win this year.

Advocaat refused to be drawn on comments attributed to him in Holland that he would be interested in extending his reign beyond the end of the season if he proves successful in his short-term goals.

Perhaps not wanting to incur the wrath of his wife, who it is claimed was happy for the former Holland national coach to remain at Sunderland only until the end of May, Advocaat smiled: “She is happy about me taking the job. She is the boss in the house now.”

Poyet last night released a statement through the League Managers’ Association in response to his Stadium of Light departure. The 47-year-old South American said: “I leave feeling proud of all our achievements during my tenure.

“We reached the League Cup final, achieved the ‘miracle’ of staying up and won all three Tyne-Wear derbies I was involved in. This season, Sunderland are the only team not to have conceded to Chelsea, and have remained outside the bottom three throughout.”